Making it harder to go to hell from Pittsburgh By Mickey Noah On a bluff overlooking the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, Lamar Duke weeps and prays for the lost people living in the Pittsburgh area below. Lamar, along with his wife, Dolly, has served the last six years as director of missions for the Baptist Association of Southwestern Pennsylvania. Some 3 million live in the association’s nine-county area, and there’s only one SBC church per 61,225 people. "We believe that approximately 2 million of those people are unchurched," says Lamar. Only five percent of the metro Pittsburgh population claim to be evangelical Christians. "There’s a lot of religion here, but there’s not much relationship with Jesus. That’s what drives me. It gets me out of the bed in the morning and keeps me up at night." Although ranked as the 22nd largest metro area in the United States, Pittsburgh also has a small-town feel—comprised of some 1,600 boroughs, each with its own ethnic and religious traits. Some 140 identifiable ethnic groups call Pittsburgh home. "Our vision here at our association is that we cannot rest until there is a vital, evangelizing, discipling, reproducing church within driving distance of all the 3 million people in the nine counties of southwestern Pennsylvania, and a church where they can worship in their heart language." Lamar believes church planting is the most effective and efficient way to reach those 2 million unchurched people in his association. "So we’re doing everything we can to salt and seed the area with the gospel," says Lamar. "The more salvation stations we can create, the more opportunity those people have to hear the gospel." Since coming to Pittsburgh six years ago, Lamar has had a direct or indirect hand in the number of churches in his association increasing from 38 to 71—probably up to 75 in the near future. One of the fellow church planters Lamar has motivated and coached is Larry Walker, pastor of West Hills Baptist Church, a 35-year-old church. West Hills once had only 60 each Sunday but now sees a weekly attendance of 90. Another 500 are touched each month via the church’s extended ministries. "A church that comes back is a church that begins to get in touch with their community and starts thinking outwardly," says Lamar. West Hills Baptist did just that. The church started ministering in neighborhoods and communities. It now supports a pregnancy center, holds Bible studies for the elderly at a senior high-rise apartment, and works with the homeless in downtown Pittsburgh. "Lamar has a great burden for lost people and a great burden to see new churches planted here in the area," says Larry. "It’s good to hang around with him and catch the vision God has given him about seeing other churches planted." In addition to West Hills’ own ministries, the church also now houses a separate Hispanic church, trying to reach the 30,000 Hispanics living and working in greater Pittsburgh. Another Duke disciple, Moises Rosario, pastors that congregation. "Lamar has a great vision and is a great man of God," says Moises, an Hispanic church planter who, in addition to the West Hills church, has helped plant Hispanic churches in Moravia, Oakland, Coraopolis, Grove City, Erie, Altoona and Martinsburg, Pennsylvania. Lamar believes churches plant churches—not associations, state conventions, agencies or mission boards. "So our goal is to enable, equip, and empower our churches to catch a vision, have the resources, and partner and sponsor with other churches to get new church plants off the ground," Lamar says. "There’s no reason to plant a church if you don’t intend to reach people for Jesus Christ. We’re not planting social clubs here, we’re planting churches. "We just want to make it hard to go to hell from Pittsburgh." OMMickey Noah is NAMB’s news consultant.
Lamar Duke– North American Missions Emphasis Worship segment Download